The teenager with the eye patch had speculated that the Tree of Evil was hiding inside the cave.

The cave was its lair, where it has been incubating since birth.

He didn't know how such an existence managed to invade Xavier, but one thing was sure to him, he needed to kill the malignant tree right away.

He was shocked out of his wits to find out that the Tree of Evil and its seed of evil has found their way to Xavier.

It was too hard to believe, after all.

The Earth Federation had set fortresses in front of every spatial tunnel in the world of Xavier. Soldiers heavily guarded these fortresses, and the latest scanning equipment that could detect even a tiny parasitic alien were installed all around the fortresses!

Yet, a Tree of Evil which was a creature belonging to a world far, far away, has managed to find its way here.

It was simply inconceivable.

However, he concluded that someone carried roots of the Tree of Evil in Xavier and planted it in this place.

Whoever it was, one thing was for sure it wasn't a person with good intentions.

That person knew that the Tree of Evil thrives in places where living beings regularly perform cardinal sins, and Leslie happened to be a city abundance in such evil practices.

In Leslie, arrogant and wealthy nobles don't see to eye with poor herb gatherers and farmers. They also indulge in the joy of a highly sensual and sexual life in the luxurious corner of this city.

Their lifestyle itself is enough to represent multiple cardinal sins such as Pride, Lust, etc. The performance of Cardinal sins, no matter how little, produces intangible and invisible negative energy, which humans cannot harness. Still, unique creatures such as Tree of Evil and monsters such as Grim Gore absolutely can.

Poor farmers and herb gatherers trying their best to make a living and live in Leslie because the housing prices are low and taxes are near to none still faces problem every day, such as the injustice done to them in every turn. Even something worse if they do something unintentionally to offend the nobles.

Of course, as the situation stands, the nobles end up envied by the poor.

Thus, another Cardinal sin produces negative energy, which pollutes the surroundings of Leslie.

The negative emotion which results from the production of the two is far than enough to speed up the growth of a Tree of Evil. Unlike other trees that need sunlight and water, the Tree of Evil was a horrifying being that buds and blossoms in the darkest and vilest places.

It didn't require anything except for living beings that could produce many units of negative energy, such as humans and subspecies.

Therefore, it preyed on humanoid the most as humane creatures produce massive pulses of negative energy after it traps them in its nightmare roots and shows them their worse nightmares.

Naturally, the mastermind behind the Tree of Evil managed to see all that.

If it's left alone, it won't take more than three months for it to advance to the demonic realm!

It couldn't be left alone as it will commit even more evil acts once it grows up to become a demonic rea Tree of Evil. Besides, it has saved so many sins since it was born that one would find it hard to count on his hands.

It has already warranted its death.

''Good, then let's go!"

As the group inched closer, the dark lair in front of them seemed like something right out of a horror movie.

It wasn't only because the cave has no light or shadow inside of it, but also because they felt like they were staring straight at the deep and dark depth of the abyss.

"This seems like a prelude to a horror movie where everyone drops dead one after another. Are we honestly going inside?" John, who wasn't a fan of horror fiction, said while gulping in terror. His hair stood on end, and his intuition was telling him not to step near the cave.

"Don't jinx us." The lady and the cool boys with stoic expressions weren't bothered by the oddness of the cave as it resulted from massive amounts of negative energy gathering at a single place.

At the same time, as they said those words, they reached near the cave entrance.

It was at this moment, however, where John's instinct proved superior to all of them.

A few black shadows silently moved in the pitch-black darkness of the cave, cutting across the air to head straight towards Leilani.

The cute little girl, utterly oblivious to the dangerous situation, took a step forward to enter the cave.

The parasitic seed of evil stretched out of the darkness to swallow up the white and black clothes girl wearing full-length pants, when in that instant, to the disappointment of the seeds and Tree of Evil, Vincent whose eyes glowed crimson, allowing him to see even in the dark, grabbed the arm of his naive girlfriend and pulled her out of the trajectory of the shadowy monsters.

Leilani crashed on his chest while the shadowy figure missed their targets and flew out of the cave.

Bang!

A gunshot sounded in the air as a single bullet caused three seeds of evil to drop to the ground, wriggling as they tried to inch closer to the person nearest to them, but with dull thuds, John stomped the little bastards to death.

"Fucking hell! The Tree of Evil, that bastard keep on targeting my sister!"

He stomped on the seed of evil to vent his anger until they dissolved into wisps of negative energy and disappeared.

"Thanks," Leilani said as she took a step away from her boyfriend.

"Stay behind me." Vincent motions her to stay near him while saying that. "I will protect you."

"Okay," Leilani said as a smile blossomed on her face. She internally felt a butterfly fluttering in her stomach.

"Let's go! We will use torchlight to illuminate as much area as we can. Leave the rest to me. I can see in the dark. If there's danger heading our way, I will notify you beforehand."

The cave was wide enough for six people to walk inside it side by side.

After all, the Tree of Evil created the cave by using its minions to house itself and them.

The inside of the cave was dark.

It was so dark that it ate up whatever light the torchlight held in the hands of the twins could produce.

They used torchlight to illuminate the cave, but the cave's darkness seemed to be swallowing it.

The darkness in the surrounding was chilling to the bone.

The expert that had faced the Tree of Evil once before in his life knew that the darkness was a scare tactic the Tree of Evil uses to scare away the invaders it fears from the depth of its heart.

Its scare tactic wasn't working against him and Vincent.

Varth, who has trodden on the path of darkness ever since he was of age, didn't feel an ounce of fear in such a place as the veil of night was his home ground.

Vincent could see even in the dark, as in front of his crimson eyes, the darkness of the night seemed no different than a place illuminated by the light of day.

Darkness was like a paradise from him.

However, the scare tactic was working on the twins as they weren't familiar with darkness.

Leilani and John couldn't help but wince at the echo of their own footsteps.

Feeling that, Varth shrugged, took out a magical stick, and broke it.

"I never thought I'd be using the memento he left for me in such a place."

In the very next second, the cave got illuminated by the golden light releasing out of the magical glow stick.

"I can see it!"

Under the Illumination of the golden light, their eyes focused ahead, deeper inside the cave, as they could faintly make out the silhouette of a rather odd, ominous tree.

"The Tree of Evil is at the end of the cave!"

The Tree of Evil seemed to be only several dozen steps away from them, standing tall at the end of the cave.

However, invisible danger littered the path towards it.

A danger that didn't escape the range of the energy sense emitted by Blood from Vincent as the center.

"Wait for a second!" Vincent hurriedly said to stop them from charging ahead to their death.

"What's wrong?" They halted in their footsteps and looked at him.

Vincent said, "Although the path ahead seems peaceful at a glance, it is filled with vicious seeds of evils waiting to invade our bodies and enslave us."